The Deeds of God Through the FranksGuibert, Abbot of Nogent-sous-Coucy
History
The Deeds of God Through the Franks
Guibert, Abbot of Nogent-sous-Coucy
Crusades -- First, 1096-1099
The Turks, however, worried about their safety, very wisely got up,
and, in the same place, rebuilt the wall so quickly and of such
strength that the next day our men could find no way of doing them
any harm. Meanwhile, two men arrived, the most celebrated for deeds
of arms and the wealthiest counts, whom we have already mentioned,
accompanied by many knights, whose arrival filled the whole army of
the Lord with joy: Robert, Count of Normandy, and Count Stephen of
Chartres.
Thus Bohemund besieged the city from the front, Tancred from the side,
Duke Godfrey from a third position, the count of Flanders from a
fourth, the count of Normandy from fifth, and the count of
Saint-Gilles and the bishop of Puy from a sixth. They set about
besieging it, so that none of the besieged could get in or out.
There one could see gathered the flower of the armed force, or the
wisdom, the nobility, of the fame of all of France, dressed in the
breastplates and helmets of knights; those who were skilled at
counting the number of people in an army thought that there were
about 100,000 men. I do not think that anyone could count the whole
crowd of foot-soldiers, or of those who attended knights. The latter
group not only performed the tasks that servants and slaves normally
perform for soldiers, but they took part in the siege, and in the
battles themselves, like lions, with bravery like that of their
betters, as though they were accustomed to wielding now arms, now
tools of any sort, whether for war, or for any other task necessary.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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